US Codex
Bill
Notes

To amend the Mineral Leasing Act to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to regulate hydraulic fracturing operations on Federal lands, and for other purposes.

H.R. 484 · 116th Congress · Jan 10, 2019 · Lineage

A BILL

1. Authority of BLM to regulate hydraulic fracturing operations

(a)
Authority of BLM To regulate hydraulic fracturing operations— The Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.) is amended—
(1)
by redesignating section 44 as section 45; and
(2)
by adding after section 43 the following:

“44. Hydraulic fracturing operations

“(a) Regulatory authority—The Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Director of the Bureau of Land Management, shall regulate hydraulic fracturing operations on Federal lands under the administration of such Secretary with respect to the purposes of this Act.

“(b) Requirements on operators—The Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Director of the Bureau of Land Management, shall require as a condition of receiving a permit or other authorization under this section an operator to—

“(1) conduct baseline water testing; and

“(2) disclose to the public on an internet web­site the chemicals used by such operator to conduct hydraulic fracturing operations.

“(c) Definition of hydraulic fracturing operations—The term “hydraulic fracturing operations”—

“(1) means those operations conducted in an individual wellbore designed to increase the flow of hydrocarbons from the rock formation to the wellbore through modifying the permeability of reservoir rock by applying fluids under pressure to fracture it; and

“(2) does not include enhanced secondary recovery such as water flooding, tertiary recovery, recovery through steam injection, or other types of well stimulation operations such as acidizing.”

(b)
Definition of underground injection— Section 1421(d)(1)(B) of the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. 300h(d)(1)(B)) is amended to read as follows:

“(B) Excludes the underground injection of natural gas for purposes of storage.”